AN EXAMINATION OF A MODEL OF A SEARCH BY THE SENSE OF 'SMELL'

摘要

A scalar field is given in space. We interpret it as an intensity of a quantity like "smell", e.g. density of some molecules—in the simplest case emanating from a (stationary or moving) point source.nAn object (a macromolecule or an insect) tries to locate the source (another molecule in a cell—or a source of food). It is a moving object, and its inertia of motion or flight makes it impracticable to determine in each point the steepest descent and follow the gradient. What is an economical or practical strategy of search? Some elementary results are obtained for a two-dimensional version of the problem.